Marketing Track

The marketing track of the Ph.D. Programme in Management (PMA) engages in a broad range of relevant and current topics from the field of marketing. Some track-specific courses are conducted in German.

Research in the field of the marketing track targets towards the following overarching objectives:

The marketing track aims at preparing doctoral students for both, an academic career in marketing as well as a research-based position in a professional business setting. Due to the large number of lecturers in marketing, doctoral students in the marketing concentration have the opportunity to conduct research in a wide range of different topics. Among other topics, these are Marketing Management, Customer Insights and Consumer Behavior, Retail Management, Service Management and Tourism, Sustainability Management, Media and Communications Management.

Prospective Ph.D. students for the marketing track distinguish themselves ideally with the following profile:

Prospective Ph.D students must meet the general requirements of the PMA. Usually they have a master's degree in business administration, occasionally in other subjects which, however, have a touchpoint with marketing (e.g. psychology). Working experience is usually helpful, but not a formal requirement.
In addition to an excellent command in English at least passive knowledge of the German language is required. Participants may have to attend (and understand) certain doctoral seminars which are conducted in German.

Among others, the following scientific theoretical approaches and practical procedures are relevant in the marketing track:

Most dissertations in marketing are targeting an empirical topic, while – according to the tradition of the research field and the research orientation of the supervisor - a broad spectrum of methods may be used: Qualitative research, such as case studies and ethnography are as common as quantitative research (e.g. field and laboratory experiments, surveys, observations, panel studies). Even conceptual research may be possible.
An essential foundation for research in marketing is having a well-reflected, scientific conceptual basis and a solid, neat and well-reasoned research methodology (i.e. compulsory course: scientific theory and methodology). Furthermore, at University of St. Gallen, the reasonable conjunction of rigour and relevance are key aspects (i.e. the emphasis of the compulsory course Marketing Management).
Selected technical and methodological courses (e.g., Consumer Behaviour, Quantitative methods in marketing) provide doctoral students the opportunity to delve into specific sub-topics. The marketing concentration is completed by numerous research colloquia, usually moderated by groups of Professors from different sub-domains in marketing.

Curriculum:

Out of the two compulsory courses, at least one of the concentration-specific courses must be attended. The second compulsory course may also be selected from the set of compulsory courses of other tracks of the PMA. In addition to some concentration specific method courses, the empirical research method courses of the Global School in Empirical Research Methods (GSERM) are recommended.